Friday, February 27, 2015

The Well of Our Incompleteness Runs Deep: Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers’ (1874-1906) writings in his devotional
book, “My Utmost For His Highest” have guided Christians on the path of Jesus
Christ since 1935. I hesitate to use the word “devotional,” as these are so
much meatier than that. These daily, oh-so-brief mini essays pack a wallop of
wisdom and insight that go much deeper than worship but result in praise to God
all the same.

The nugget that lands on today’s date is as follows:

“Where then do You get that living water?” (John 4:11)

“‘The well is deep’”—and even a great deal deeper than the
Samaritan woman knew! (4:11). Think of the depths of human nature and human
life; think of the depth of the ‘wells’ in you. Have you been limiting, or
impoverishing, the ministry of Jesus to the point that He is unable to work in
your life? Suppose that you have a deep ‘well’ of hurt and trouble inside your heart,
and Jesus comes and says to you, ‘Let not your heart be troubled...’ (John
14:1). Would your response be to shrug your shoulders and say, ‘But, Lord, the
well is too deep, and even You can’t draw up quietness and comfort out of it.’
Actually, that is correct. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of
human nature—He brings them down from above. We limit the Holy One of Israel by
remembering only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and also by
saying, ‘Of course, I cannot expect God to do this particular thing.’ The thing
that approaches the very limits of His power is the very thing we as disciples
of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish and weaken His ministry in
us the moment we forget He is almighty. The impoverishment is in us, not in Him.
We will come to Jesus for Him to be our comforter or our sympathizer, but we
refrain from approaching Him as our Almighty God.

The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity
is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian
attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus
Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by
saying, ‘Of course, He can’t do anything about this.’ We struggle to reach the
bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting
back, and saying, ‘It can’t be done.’ You will know it can be done if you will
look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort
to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost
for His Highest, emphasis and underlining mine